Promises
by depressionisanillusion
Summary: Padmé has a dream. A dream that scares her half to death. When Anakin wakes her, he makes some promises he can never keep . . .


A/N - A one-shot with Padmé and Anakin. Padmé has a dream, and Anakin makes some promises he can never keep. Set during RotS, after Palpatine tells Ani that he knows a way to save Padmé.

* * *

_She runs toward his motionless figure in the grass, lifting her skirt and sprinting forward, calling his name. She reaches him, turns him over . . He's laughing, and he pounces. They roll together through the sweetly-smelling grass, both laughing. The moment feels like magic, and she smiles down on his handsome face . . ._

_She goes into the workshop, where he's fixing a broken droid. "Everything feels better when you're fixing things," he says. In minutes, he's crying on her shoulder, and she's surprised at how weak he seems in her arms . . . _

_He pulls her into the ship, and she holds tight to him as they lift off. His master jumps on behind them. They go over a desert-like part of the planet, and the ship takes a hit. It swerves, and she falls backward out of the open side. As she falls, she hears him scream her name as though he'd just had his heart ripped out . . . _

_He runs toward her, where's she's waiting in the shadows of a pillar. She jumps into his arms and he spins her around. His lips search for hers, and in moments they're almost making love. She tells him to stop, and looks into his eyes. Suddenly, without warning, the shadows around him darken, and the landscape changes. Spires of flame shoot around him, and her Naboo speeder is docked beside them. _

"_He's trying to turn you against me!" he says, reaching for her, but she steps back. _

"_He cares about us," she responds, looking at him in confusion. His eyes are yellow. _

"_Us?" he snarls, stepping even closer. She looks down at her stomach. It's bulged larger than she'd thought it could be. _

"_He knows," she whispers, looking away from him. She doesn't want to see his eyes. Not after what he's done. He looks over at something she can't see, then he steps away from her, and points a shaking hand at her in anger. _

"_You're with him!" he twists his hand, and the air rushes out of her lungs. She can't breathe. _

"_No, no, Anakin, please." she gasps, a hand jumping to her throat. There is nothing there, but she knows it's him who's hurting her. _

"_You brought him here to kill me!" he moves his hand more, making it stronger, and the invisible force around her neck tightens. She chokes, babbling incoherently. _

"_Let her go!" A voice she recognizes. She looks over in her pain and sees a man dressed all in white, like an angel against the other man's black. "Let her go, Anakin!" the pain on her neck loosens, and she crumples to the ground. _

"_You turned her against me!" _

"_I didn't have to." _

"_You won't take her from me!" Why does he think that the man in white would take her? She knows him, knows he wouldn't do anything to hurt her. _

"_You've done that well enough on your own." She hears the unmistakable sound of lightsabers being turned on. _

'_No, no!' she thinks, trying to open her eyes, stand up, yell at them to stop. But she can't move. It's as though there's something pressing down on her body, restricting her breathing, preventing her from moving. She tries to draw in breath, but no air surrounds her mouth. There is nothing there, no life, no anything. She's dizzy, spinning around and around, fading . . ._

* * *

He felt the disturbance before he heard a sound. Confusion, fear, pain . . . He closed his eyes, trying to find the source of the feelings. He found himself, staring down at a woman, the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. His wife. He knew he was in her dream, and he enjoyed it, for a moment. They were memories, ones that he remembered, just as she did. But then the dream changed. He found himself in darkness, and her face seemed shrouded by black mist. He suddenly felt hate, stronger than he'd ever felt before, directed at her. His body moved, and he couldn't stop it. He was hurting her, and he wanted to stop. He couldn't hear a word of what was going on around him. All his being was concentrated on leaving this dream, leaving and running to her. He had to almost physically drag himself out of her mind.

"Anakin, please, no, don't . . No, Ani, Ani, no . . ."

He ran, his open shirt flapping with his speed. She was tossing in bed, struggling, gasping for breath. He pulled back her blankets, his hands trembling in fear. She wasn't breathing. He reached down to her chest, fumbled for the edge of her nightgown and ripped it open. He didn't even notice the gleam of her skin in the moonlight. He held her shoulders tightly, willing her to breath. When she didn't, he leaned down in desperation and planted his lips on hers.

* * *

She didn't feel the rush of cold air as the blankets were pulled from her bed, nor did she notice when her nightgown was ripped from her body. She did, however, feel the hands on her shoulders. And she felt the kiss.

She seemed to break out of the dream as though breaking the surface of a pool of black water. A sheen of cold seat covered her entire body. She pressed her eyes closed again and gasped for breath, curling his fingers into the soft cloth of her husband's tunic. She felt his breath on her neck, his chest against hers, his arms holding her tightly.

"Oh, Anakin," she whispered, her voice cracking into a sob. "I've had the most horrible dream . . ."

"I know." His lips found hers again. His metal hand, the result of a terrible encounter with a Sith Lord, was strong on her back. His other hand twined itself in her long brown hair, caressing the curls. "I saw it."

They held each other for a moment, rocking together back and forth. She was sobbing into his shoulder, gripping him as though she expected him to slip away.

"Padmé, oh Padmé . . ." he murmured, kissing her face, her neck, anything. "It was just a dream. Just a nightmare. It can't hurt you now."

_But what about you?_ She thought, her eyes still shut tightly._ Can't you still hurt me?_

"Promise me something, Ani," she muttered, stroking a strand of his hair.

"Anything," he declared, his lips gently nipping her ear.

"Promise me that whatever you do, whatever happens to me, you won't turn to the Dark Side."

He didn't answer right away. He pulled back from her. For a moment, she felt a streak of intense panic. Any moment now, he'd be raising his hand in fury, and her neck would be held tightly by an invisible hand, forcing all the air out of her lungs . . .

"Padmé," he said, and his voice was gentle. "Padmé, look at me."

She didn't want to look at him. She didn't want to see his eyes, blazing yellow and malignant, like a Tuscan's, in his handsome face. She forced herself to open her eyes, and found herself face-to- face with her husband. His eyes were warm and compassionate, and a beautiful brown.

"I will never be a Sith," he whispered, his hand slipping along the side of her face. "I could never do anything to hurt you." He slid his hand down to her neck and caressed her soft skin. "What you dreamed was horrible, terrible . . . I would die rather than harm you in any way. You know this."

"I do." she swallowed and gazed up at him. "But I'm still so afraid. I don't want to lose you, Ani. Little Ani." She closed her eyes again and pulled him down next to her. She turned away, and he lay facing her back, wrapping his arms around her, his real hand caressing her stomach, which was already beginning to swell.

* * *

She was sound asleep. He heard her quiet breathing, her occasional harsher indrawn breath. He held her there, not wanting to let go, not wanting to sleep. He was afraid too, afraid of the dreams that had been plaguing him, afraid of the dream that had just come to her . . .

"I love you so much," he whispered into her ear. When she didn't respond, he continued. "I never want to let you go, Padmé. You're going to die; if not in childbirth, then somehow, someday . . . And I'm not going to let you." He swallowed. "There's a way. I can keep you alive, and myself alive, and our child alive, forever. Meteachlorines are powerful things. We could retire to a harrar-plant on Naboo, or to a moisture farm on Tatooine, or something. We could be safe, forever. But, the thing is . . ." he paused again. "The thing is, the only way I could do that . . . The only way I can save us . . . Is to become a Sith. They're the only ones who can control the meteachlorines."

She shifted in his arms, and he froze. She had heard everything, and now was going to tell on him and leave him and he'd be kicked out of the Jedi order . . .

"Ani?" she whispered, turning in his arms so that she was facing him. She stoked his chest gently and he closed his eyes, twining his hand in her hair. "Ani," she said again, sighing. "Promise me you'll never leave me."

He pulled her even closer, so that the entire length of her body was pressed against his. her head was cushioned against his chest. "I promise," he murmured, his face buried in her hair. "Always and forever, 'til the end of time."

* * *

A/N - Did you like it? I know that I probably spelled meteachlorines wrong, but I guessed. Tell me if you like it, love it, hate it . . . 


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